ו The sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The name of this letter ‘Waw’, means ‘hook’, ‘peg’ (see וָו ᴵ); so called in allusion to the ancient Heb. form of this letter. In PBH it has the numerical value six. At the beginning of West Sem. words (i.e. Heb., Aram., Ugar.), ו almost always becomes י. cp. e.g. Arab. walada, Heb. יָלַד, Aram. יְלֵד (= he begot), or Ethiop. warḥ, Heb. יֶרַח, Aram. יַרְחָא (= month). cp. also the introductory entries to letters י and ה.